The nature of what's to come: Changing agribusiness strategies in the era of the Uruguay Round

This dissertation describes global agricultural trade regulations during the time of the Uruguay Round of the GATT and two agribusinesses corporations' strategies in a shifting agricultural trade regime. In the late 1980s, the United States experienced a crisis in agricultural exports. At the same time, the GATT was being negotiated to regulate agriculture. This dissertation examines the very different strategies deployed by Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland as they adjusted to and reshaped trade rules.;Using data from trade and financial journals from 1986 to 1993, the dissertation contrasts the different strategies of these two corporations. Both corporations were major processors of both wheat and oilseeds, yet differed in their processing capacity outside of the United States. In the mid 1980s, Cargill had already established the capacity to source both wheat and soy internationally, while ADM had only established limited capacity to process oilseeds outside of the United States. Cargill was more successful in shaping international rules to meet its needs for lowered trade tariffs, and by the time that the Uruguay Round was completed and the WTO was formed, a new set of rules for agriculture were negotiated: fewer domestic subsidies, lowered tariff barriers, and decreased export subsidies. ADM had to shift strategies to match Cargill, and began to move processing facilities overseas. The Supermarket to the World had adapted to the Nature of What was to Come.;This dissertation contributes to theoretical discussions of changes in international agricultural production, and to our understanding of relations between corporations and the state in the larger context of changing global trade.